


Interesting

by pyalgroundblz (acidtonguejenny)



Category: Dresden Files - Jim Butcher
Genre: Gen, Jossed, Pre-Slash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-06-18
Updated: 2011-06-18
Packaged: 2017-10-20 12:44:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 692
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/212901
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/acidtonguejenny/pseuds/pyalgroundblz
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jared Kincaid has been around for a long, long time. Harry/Kincaid friendly, just barely pre-slash.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Interesting

Jared Kincaid had been around for a long, long time. He’d seen and done many things over the years, and it wasn’t often that he was surprised with newness. New events, new people (because after so long, they blurred terribly). Some days he thinks to himself, _I’ve seen it all_ , and he’s a little smug. It’s a pattern he’s okay with, actually.

It figured that Harry Dresden would one of the minority, nowadays, that could blindside him.

And did, with increasing regularity.

The wizard sat across from him in a rented apartment, blowing steam off his cup of instant and sipping, sedate. Calm as you please. As if he wasn’t almost three hundred years old by Jared’s guess, and opposite the Atlantic from a thirty-some year old version of himself.

Kincaid slurps some of his own coffee, having deemed it safe.

Three hundred. Those extra centuries hang exceptionally well on his frame, visible in lines in his face, at his eyes and mouth, but in few other ways, physically. Unsurprising, considering. The real changes are personality, demeanor wise. Dresden is calmer, wiser. Gave a guy the sense that he would let the bad guys come to him, not worry about it in the meantime.

Kincaid approved. No reason to scramble like the current Dresden did when trouble seemed to be creeping closer. Never let'em see you sweat; a form of that had been old back in the old days.

He drinks, and waits. _I assume this is about business. What have you got for me?_ Or, _geez man, you're_ old.

You know. There are a plethora of things he could say, but they all sound stupid. So he'll wait.

The clock by the refrigerator alerts to the passing of seconds, minutes. The electric hum of the single, bare lightbulb overhead begins to grate on Jared's sensitive hearing.

Dresden finishes his coffee. Drains the cup, angles it to be sure he's gotten every bit, lowers the ceramic to the tabletop with a muted click, and licks his lips. Kincaid sits up just a little straighter.

 _Finally_. He'd been so bored, lately. Didn't take a genus to know that was about to change in like, four seconds.

Sure enough. Dresden smiles, edgeless, and says "I want you to kill me."

The Hound's eyebrows shoot up. Well, he wanted interesting.

"Is that so?" Is the best he can come up with, the majority of his brain racing to get it together. He raises his mug to his mouth to provide an excuse; the remaining liquid is thick and cold.

"Hm." Dresden hummed. "Not me." A finger to his chest. "But _me_. You know, the other me."

"When?" _Why?_ The how is a given.

Dresden tells him. Date, time. Where his shot should come from. Where he'll find him.

Kincaid rubs his jaw. "That's less than a month from now." He's thinking aloud. Dresden knows; he only nods in response. "There a chance of you telling me why?"

Highly unprofessional of course, but who the fuck cares.

"I'll be disappointed if you can't figure that out for yourself, come time." Dresden gives him a _look_ from across the table, and something barbed and unwelcome rockets up Jared's spine like a live current. His grip around the now empty mug spasms, tightens. Kincaid grins, showing teeth, displaying threat and gratitude.

"You've broken _laws_ , Dresden." He points out, as he hadn't before.

Half of a smirk.

 _Interesting_. Christ, is that ever interesting.

Dresden is not afraid of him.

Kincaid makes another long, careful survey of the wizard, so slow as to approach a kind of voyeurism.

Not to say that Dresden, the current one, is afraid of him. Nah, not so much that as he's very much aware of the fact that there is _reason_ to be afraid, under the right circumstances. It's a unspoken respect for the Hellhound's abilities, his potential to become a threat. More than a threat; a guarantee. This Dresden, however…

This Dresden doesn't see it that way.

He can't wait for the future.

Wonders if he could convince someone to give him a peek.

"You'll just have to wait, Jared." Dresden admonishes, laughing.


End file.
